Wood, William

New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, commonly called New England ... Laying down that which may both enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the future Voyager. London: Printed by Thomas Cotes for John Bellamie, 1635



4to (7 1/4 x 5 5/8 in.; 184 x 143 mm). Folding woodcut map of "The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1635," woodcut and typographic headpieces, woodcut initials; title-page soiled and with some minor marginal fraying, map with 2 short marginal tears and trimmed close to neat-line at left margin, some browning and soiling, especially to gatherings A–C and pages E4v and F1r. Early nineteenth-century diced russia (note on the front fly-leaf indicating the binding was done in 1810), purple-coated endpapers, marbled edges; rebacked, extremities rather worn.

Burden 239 (map); Church 433; European Americana 635/134; Pilling, Algonquian 535; Schwartz & Ehrenberg, p. 100 (map, 1634 issue); STC 25958; Vail 89

Second edition, reprinted from the first edition of 1634 (a third edition was called for in 1639). The map, the first detailed cartographical view of Massachusetts, is from the same woodblock as in the first edition, but has a reset typographic heading. Little is known of the author, who was resident in New England from 1629 to 1633; Wood may have returned to British America after sailing to England to publish this account. The General Court of Massachusetts Bay voted thanks to Wood on the appearance of New Englands Prospect. Part II of the work is devoted to a detailed narrative of the Indian peoples of New England and includes a five-page glossary.